Sustainability in Practice
In this course the students will get a unique experience working practically and theoretically with sustainability and entrepreneurship, in interdisciplinary teams. To develop a more sustainable society is a complex task where we need to take into account the interplay between ecological, social, and economic conditions. Thus, there is a need to work interdisciplinary to move towards sustainability.
This course will address sustainability from different perspectives. In addition, the students work with local real-life cases in teams with students from different faculties and disciplines. The course combines and integrates sustainability and entrepreneurship methodologies. The students discuss and design sustainability for the context of the real-world case. Thereafter, the students will use tools of entrepreneurial action to identify and pursue sustainable opportunities inherent in the real-world cases.
Knowledge:
After the course, the student should have:
- knowledge about different perspectives on sustainability.
- understanding of the complexity of sustainability and the inherent challenges, and be able to evaluate them in relation to different sustainability perspectives.
- knowledge of how entrepreneurial action can contribute to a more sustainable society.
- knowledge of communication and collaboration in multidisciplinary teams.
Skills:
After the course the student should
- be able to identify problem areas for sustainable development and what is sustainable in a certain context.
- have developed entrepreneurial mindset that make her/him competent to see opportunities and act actively to solve sustainable challenges.
- be able to use his/her own professional background and experiences to work with a sustainability project in an interdisciplinary team.
- have developed collaborative and communicative skills in multidisciplinary teams.
General competences:
After the course, the student should be able to:
- act as a change agent to contribute to a more sustainable society.
- understand interdisciplinary issues and contribute their expertise in discussions in complex issues.
- collaborate with,and convey proposed solutions, to actors in the society who work with sustainability issues.
- understand how to use own professional competence to work on projects in interdisciplinary teams.
- Reflect on how a project process and a collaboration in a team work
Class attendance is compulsory.
The course uses following teaching methods:
- Lectures
- Debates and brainstorming in interdisciplinary teams during lectures
- Group exercises during lectures
- Project work and case assignments from real organizations
- Self-directed studies through reading and short home-assignments
- Individual reflections and writing exercises
Students from different faculties and disciplines work in interdisciplinary teams with real-time cases to propose solutions for a more sustainable society. The students get the case assignment from real organizations.
During the course, the students deliver two written assignments that will be collected into a portfolio for evaluation:
- A group-based project assignment (answering the proposed case-problem)
- A reflection note about the contents of the course
Portfolio with a project assignment from the team and a reflection note (A-F).
Compulsory participation, minimum 80% participation (Passed/Not passed).
